


Eyes on the Audience

by Scrawlers



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, friendship fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 04:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17015838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scrawlers/pseuds/Scrawlers
Summary: Anzu didn't expect anyone to show up for her first Broadway performance, but that doesn't mean no one will.





	Eyes on the Audience

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years ago, but in light of Tumblr being . . . Tumblr, I've decided to archive everything here. Just in case.

Anzu didn’t expect anyone to show up for her first dance performance. It was all the way in New York, to begin with, and plane tickets were expensive enough without accounting for hotel rooms and tickets to her actual show. She told her friends about it, of course—she hadn’t been able to stop herself from talking about all the details of her production when she’d spoken to them over Skype—but she knew that even with their various jobs they wouldn’t be able to afford to come see her show, and that was fine. Understandable, even expected.

Of course, it hurt a bit that her parents weren’t going to be able to make it. Her dad was busy with work and her mom was taking care of her ailing grandmother. That was understandable, too, but for her first Broadway performance . . .

Well, Anzu was still disappointed.

But disappointment at least killed any surprise when no one came to visit her backstage before the show, and she didn’t bother to scan the dark crowd when she went on stage. It was easier this way, she thought, as she lost herself to the music. This way she didn’t have to meet any expectations, she didn’t have to worry about disappointing anyone. There was no pressure now; just a bunch of strangers who didn’t know her from any of the other performers.

She hit her final mark right on cue, and as the music stopped and the light rose, an undignified cheer broke over the polite applause from the audience.

Anzu found the source of the shout immediately, and her heart lodged in her throat. In the back of the theater, against all reason and expectations, sat—or rather, stood, they were standing, standing and cheering and applauding—her boys. Yuugi was clapping furiously around a bouquet of flowers he held in his arms, and Jounouchi had a similar bouquet in a tight fist, his other hand cupped around his mouth to amplify his cheers. Bakura had a video camera in one hand and his smile was brighter than the stage lights, while Honda held up a huge poster that read “GO ANZU — #1!!” and was covered in an insane amount of glitter. Anzu’s vision blurred as she watched them, and she was suddenly aware that her cheeks were starting to hurt from the force of her smile. She waved at them, cheeks burning, and somehow that just made them cheer even harder.

When Anzu and the others took their final bows and made their way backstage, Anzu bypassed the dressing room to get one of the side hallways so that she could go out to meet them. They would wait for her, she knew–of course she would–and it would probably be smarter for her to dress down first, to take the pins out of her hair, to change into better shoes, but all she could think about was getting out to the lobby to meet them, to make sure that they were really,  _truly_ there.

They were. All four of them stood off to the side in the lobby, Honda with his ridiculous poster, Bakura showing them something on the video camera. They looked up when she approached, but barely had time to say anything before Anzu threw herself at them, crushing first Yuugi and Jounouchi in a hug, before she turned to grab Honda and Bakura.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” she gasped, and she pulled back to wipe at her eyes, beaming at them. “You’re—how—?”

“What, like we’d miss it?” Jounouchi said, and he sounded mock offended.

Yuugi beamed at her. “You were amazing, Anzu!”

“Beautiful, really,” Bakura said, and once again Anzu felt her cheeks flush.

“I’m just glad we made it in time,” Honda said, and he shot Jounouchi and Yuugi teasing looks. “ _Someone_ had to spend thirty minutes wondering what kind of flowers to get.”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that, Mr Do-You-Think-This-Is-Enough-Glitter,” Jounouchi said, and Anzu laughed as Yuugi held out his bouquet to her.

“We heard that you’re supposed to give dancers flowers after shows, so . . .” Yuugi said, his cheeks a little red. 

Anzu reached out and took the bouquet–roses, same as the ones Jounouchi handed a second later–and nodded. “Thank you,” she said thickly, and cleared her throat before she said, “Really, I don’t know what to—I’m still amazed you’re here, how did you—?”

“We have our ways,” Jounouchi said vaguely, and Anzu furrowed her brow, wondering just what that meant. 

“I’ll tell you later,” Honda said in an undertone. Anzu nodded, and though she still felt a bit confused, decided to let the subject drop for the time being.

“Well, we’re here for the whole weekend, but I think we should go celebrate tonight,” Bakura said, and Anzu looked back at him, her heart flipping on the words  _here for the whole weekend._ “At least, I think it’s usually customary to celebrate successful performances, right?”

“Damn straight it is!” Jounouchi said. He grinned at Anzu. “We can go or do whatever you want. Our treat.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—” Anzu began, but Yuugi interrupted her.

“Maybe we could go get dinner somewhere cool?” he suggested. “I’ve never been to New York before, so maybe you could show us to your favorite restaurant, Anzu. We’ll take you out to celebrate your show, and in return for you showing us around, we’ll cover you. Does that sound okay?”

Leave it to Yuugi to find a way to make it sound like a fair exchange, when it was more than obvious they were treating her. But despite the fact they’d already done more than enough for her just by  _being_ there, on tonight of all nights, Anzu couldn’t bring herself to say no. She nodded.

“Definitely,” she said. “Just let me go get changed, okay? It’ll only take a few minutes.”

“No problem, we’ll be out here,” Honda said. Anzu gave each boy a hug in turn before she turned and started back toward the dressing room, her steps feeling three thousand times lighter than they had been on stage not a half hour before.

She already knew she was pretty lucky to have achieved her dream, but not even Broadway could compare to how fortunate she knew she was to have friends in those four boys out there.


End file.
